Seasonal Evolution of Sea Surface Salinity in the Northwestern Indian Ocean: Argo Data Study

This research explores the seasonal evolution of sea surface salinity (SSS) in the Northwestern Indian Ocean (NWIO) over the Sea of Oman (SOO) and the Arabian Sea. For this study we used the datasets provided by the Argo floats within the timeframe from 2004 to 2019. For SSS, values of salinity are used nearest to the sea surface (depth ≤ 10 m), as it would be comparable to satellite SSS measurements. From the seasonal evolution of SSS, we investigated the co-existence of two water masses in the Arabian Sea region: 1) the Arabian Sea High Saline Water (ASHSW) that is in excess of salinity (> 36.9) and occupying the north and central basins of the Arabian Sea and 2) the Bay of Bengal Water (BBW) that is inferior in salinity (˂ 35) and occupying the south basin of the Arabian Sea.